Happy Turkey Day
President Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Photo courtesy www.KaradenizGazette.com.tk)
Okay, it’s Thanksgiving, a day in which turkey features prominently. So I’d like to issue personal thanks to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, president of the Eastern European nation that shares its name with our beloved bird. President Erdoğan deserves acknowledgement for a brave stance calling for Saudi Arabian accountability in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. To think Khashoggi’s death was the result of some rogue insurgency is nothing short of absurd.
Khashoggi is the Saudi dissident and journalist who tragically got carved-up in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Instanbul on Oct. 2, which murder the Arabian rulership is now trying to shrug off, blaming unauthorized conspirators and sentencing them to death for the crime. Meanwhile, at least one pivotal player — crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, or MBS, as he’s called — seems headed for a pass. While the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has concluded MBS ordered the gruesome gangland-style hit on Khashoggi, President Trump refuses to believe it (preferring instead to endorse MBS’s denials).
Turkey is not a huge geopolitical force and Erdoğan is punching above his weight taking on Saudi Arabia in the court of public opinion. While some European leaders are siding with him, it’s demoralizing that our own president refuses to, and citizens of the U.S., where Khashoggi lived at the time of his murder, must look elsewhere for moral leadership. The White House seems to be valuing oil and arms shipments over free speech and human life, not to mention the rule of law and common decency. (Imagine if Churchill found the Germans more worthy as trade partners than adversaries?)
Beyond the sheer outrageousness of the brutality of Khashoggi’s murder, Erdoğan is understandably peeved that Arabia’s rulers so brazenly violated his diplomatic hospitality, as well as right to sovereign rule. Turkey is by all accounts a respectable Republic, operating within acceptable parameters of international law. A fundamental tenet of which is not to lure citizens to embassy compounds so they can be dismembered and disappeared; then, adding insult to injury, expect to be covered by a shield of diplomatic immunity. I mean, c’mon! If we’re going to stand on formality and manners, Erdoğan has my vote all the way.
Historically, Erdoğan has not exactly been considered a friend to journalists, perhaps all the more reason to applaud him now. A bit self-interested, maybe (we’re talking about a man who is a pretty savvy player when it comes to attention on the world stage), but I’m gonna say motivated at least in part by righteous anger over an act of unspeakable horror. One which civilized people must not be willing to shrug off and turn away.
It is embarrassing, not to mention gross (in every sense of the word) that our US president has publicly equivocated on this. While a knee-jerk policy reaction is also not a smart choice, words do matter. Let’s hope this message gets refined (if not by Trump, then Congress). There is overwhelming probability that the crown prince Mohammad bin Salman approved, if not initiated, the murder of Khashoggi.
Salman’s father, the (by some accounts dottering) king Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has 13 children. Surely there must be a more worthy choice? (Although I thought the number was more like 23!) Sure, let them save face by appearing to “think it over” and navigate through on their own steam. But if this is a nation that is going to continue to take part in international diplomacy and civilized discourse…. Europe seems to be taking a position of refusing to deal with Mohammad bin Salman and so has Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Fine, let Recep Erdoğan and Lindsey Graham be our beacons of free speech and the marketplace of ideas. If they can help our troubled world get a few more steps to an enlightened space, more the better. A good idea is without borders. A smart insight has no partisanship. And in gross situations, it is usually pretty obvious to rational people which path is the worthy path.
I’m not going to use this as platform to unilaterally bash our US president. His choice of words was unfortunate. An optimist, I find myself hoping usually before bed each night, that the president will wake up and start spouting different policy (which wish when confessed to a friend prompted the reply, “I just find myself hoping he just won’t wake up!”). Why not? Isn’t that part of the human condition? Choice.
In the words of another worth Middle Easterner (Freddie Mercury’s father, Bomi Balsara, (of the UK via India and Zanzibar, a global citizen.), “Good words, good deeds.” (If you love international politics, do see Bohemian Rhapsody.)
Any way, the point being that it is Turkey Day here in the US, and I use it to beat a drumstick of solidarity in time with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, While it is sad that I have to look for moral leadership to the head of a foreign republic, rather than our own chief executive, and the word of homeland intelligence, well, it’s just wrong. But it is better than having no moral guidance. Thank you Mr. Erdoğan.
He walks a fine line, as a president with what seems to be somewhat strict Muslim religious beliefs that do appear to influence his rule. (Apparently while we in the US feel it’s great to have one nation under god, we are not alone in wanting to decide which god it should be. Muslim democracy seems to be an elusive goal (I haven’t yet read this article on whether Turkey is the only Muslim democracy, but I would like to have it available later, and offer it now for anyone who has time).
And no, I’m not naive, and realize there are transactional concerns in geopolitical relationships. But anyone who has doubts as to the gross (that word again!) corruption of the Saudi government should watch this Frontline special from 2016, Saudi Arabia Uncovered. It’s worth noting that the Khashoggi incident while extremely tragic is not unique. As suggested in this documetnary, people get locked up in Saudi Arabia for doing things like playing a guitar in a park. And incarceration is as good as a death sentence. I do agree it’s time civilized nations unite and take a harder line.
I have a Turkish friend, supportive of Erdoğan, who years ago forced me to duly consider the accomplishments of his country’s leader in a fair light. At the time, some years ago, Erdoğan seemed to be refereeing a dispute over a public park. Should it be bulldozed to make way for what I understood would be a shopping piazza? My friend and I were on opposite ends of that issue (me, being a tree-hugger, on the side of what seemed to be a vocal minority of townspeople).
I never did learn the fate of that park. Things appear important one moment only to fade from our frame of reference the next. Let’s hope Khashoggi’s senseless and brutal death never does, and that is is not in vain, but rather a catalyst for free speech and decency that is a game-changer, forging new alliances and a renewed commitment to human rights.
Fresh seating at the cool kids’ table. I hope the US manages an invitation.